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New Day
Trump: Mueller Probe Was an 'Attempted Takeover of Our Government'; Trump: Russia Would've Preferred Hillary Clinton as President; Theresa May Offers to Resign to Get Brexit Deal Passed; Illinois A.G. Asked to Review Handling of Smollett Case; FAA: Changes Coming to Aviation Safety Oversight; One Winning Ticket Sold in Wisconsin for $786M Powerball. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired March 28, 2019 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I asked whether Congress would see the entire report. He would not make a commitment.
[05:59:23] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (via phone): This was an attempted takeover. We can never let this happen again.
JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: The obstruction piece confuses me. It doesn't make sense on its face.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president will be putting forward plans this year --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They want to tear it down. There's no even replacement.
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: I'm vehemently opposed to the administration seeking to invalidate the entire Affordable Care Act.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Thursday, March 28, 6 a.m. in New York, and we have breaking news.
Cheddar cheese. A whole lot of cheddar cheese. This is -- my boys say this. This is from my boys, who might be watching.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: I hope they're watching right now.
BERMAN: Cheddar cheese. In this case, Wisconsin cheddar.
CAMEROTA: Oh, God.
BERMAN: The third largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history, $768 million. One winning ticket for the Powerball drawing. It was sold in Wisconsin. Hence the cheddar cheese. CAMEROTA: Do you have your big, like, cheddar happy you wear
sometimes at home?
BERMAN: A lot of cheddar cheese.
CAMEROTA: It is.
BERMAN: This is the one time when Wisconsin cheddar is better than Vermont.
No, we do not officially know the identity of the winner yet, but I think I know. I have some ideas about who won.
CAMEROTA: Is it Phil, our audio guy, who took all our money and then didn't tell us what happened?
BERMAN: He isn't here today. No. It is someone else. I will tell you who it is in just a moment. So stand by for that.
CAMEROTA: Standing.
BERMAN: All right. So Wisconsin won the Powerball. And overnight, Vladimir Putin won the diplomatic and intelligence mega lottery.
Why? Because in a brand-new interview, President Trump gave new cover to the Russian leader for the attack on the 2016 election. In this new interview, President Trump claimed that Russia did not want him to win.
This is despite the fact that U.S. intelligence agencies found that Russia wanted him to win. This is despite the fact that the Mueller investigation found that it did. Despite the fact that the Barr summary of the Mueller report noted that Russia worked to help him win. Even Vladimir Putin himself said he wanted Donald Trump to win. And usually, the president believes him more than anybody.
CAMEROTA: So when will we see the full Mueller report? The House Judiciary Committee chairman, Jerry Nadler, fears the answer is never. He says that Attorney General William Barr could not -- would not commit to making the full report public. Barr, though, did commit to testifying before Congress.
Meanwhile, health care is back on the front burner in Washington. A White House official says there is no fresh plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, despite the president backing a court ruling to strike down the ACA in its entirety.
Plus, someone is joining the 2020 race for president and will be making the announcement in just minutes right here on NEW DAY.
So let's begin with CNN's Boris Sanchez. He is live at the White House -- Boris.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.
Almost one week after Robert Mueller finished his work, questions about his report still linger here at the White House and on Capitol Hill. And one thing is clear: the president is not letting this go.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TRUMP (via phone): We can never allow this treasonous -- these treasonous acts to happen to another president. This was an attempted takeover of our government, of our country, an illegal takeover.
SANCHEZ (voice-over): President Trump escalating his effort to delegitimize Robert Mueller's investigation after it clears him and his campaign of conspiracy with Russia, implying that he intends to punish the officials behind the probe.
TRUMP: In 50 years from now, in 100 years from now, if somebody tries the same thing, they have to know that the penalty will be very, very great, if and when they get caught.
SANCHEZ: The threat coming as Democrats raise concerns about when and if Attorney General William Barr will release the full Mueller report to the public.
REP. JERROLD NADLER (D-NY), CHAIRMAN, JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: He said it was a very substantial report, so substantial that I don't see how you can summarize it in four pages.
When I asked whether the -- he could commit that the American people and the - and the Congress would see the entire, unredacted report and the underlying evidence, he would not make a commitment on that; and that is not acceptable.
SANCHEZ: House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler telling reporters he expects Barr to miss next week's deadline by House Democrats to provide the full report to Congress but declining to say whether Democrats would subpoena the Justice Department.
President Trump praising the attorney general, suggesting he would have prevented the special counsel probe from being launched in the first place.
TRUMP: Our new attorney general, Bill Barr, is a -- is a great gentleman. Had he been there initially, this all would have -- not have happened.
SANCHEZ: Fired FBI Director James Comey, whose dismissal led to the appointment of the special counsel, raising questions about Mueller's decision to punt on obstruction of justice, despite declining to exonerate the president.
COMEY: The purpose of a special counsel is to make sure that the politicals, in this case the attorney general, doesn't make the ultimate call. It doesn't make sense on its face.
SANCHEZ: Comey telling NBC he thought these remarks were potential evidence of obstruction.
TRUMP (on camera): Regardless of recommendation, I was going to fire Comey. I said to myself, I said, you know, "This Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story."
SANCHEZ: President Trump also falsely claimed that Putin did not want him to win.
TRUMP (via phone): Russia would much rather have Hillary than Donald Trump, I can tell you that right now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: And it's important to remember a point that John brought up earlier. Last summer, during a press conference in Helsinki, President Trump was side-by-side with Vladimir Putin; and Vladimir Putin said he wanted Donald Trump to win in 2016.
One more note: During his interview with Sean Hannity last night, President Trump was asked about the possibility of pardons for Paul Manafort, Rick Gates or a number of other campaign and administration officials that have been convicted of crimes. He said it was too soon to discuss -- John, Alisyn.
BERMAN: That seemed to crack that door open a little bit wider on the pardon issue.
Boris Sanchez at the White House, thanks so much.
Joining us now, CNN senior political analyst John Avlon. And John, there was the usual rhetoric you would expect from a Trump-Hannity summit last night.
But I really do think the fascinating thing were the president's comments on Russia and Russian attacks on the 2016 election, that Russia didn't want him to win. I just want to remind our viewers, so they see and hear it for themselves, what Vladimir Putin said about this. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Putin, did you want President Trump to win the election? And did you direct any of your officials to help him do that?
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Because he talked about bringing the right U.S.-Russia relationship back to normal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: So he says --
JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.
BERMAN: -- yes, he wanted the president to win. But after all this, after the Mueller report and the Barr summary of it, this is where the president is. Nothing to see here. Never happened.
AVLON: Yes. And who are you going to believe, President Trump or your lying eyes, John? Look, this is a -- this is a return to form. It's a classic impulse by the president.
First of all, what we know from the Barr memo, one of the things that seems to confirm, the Mueller report seems to confirms is what the intelligence community has said all along, that Russia did try to influence our election on Donald Trump's behalf.
The president not accepting that as he has not all along. And there's an absurdity to it. And -- and it's paired with this. You know, all of a sudden, he's calling people behind the Mueller report, raising the specter of treason, saying, you know, Trump -- no, no, Putin actually wanted Hillary to win. This is treasonous. They called me treasonous. No, they're the ones.
This is big language with big stakes. This is -- this is fundamental stuff in a republic, that accusation. And -- and the president just deflects every accusation. It's what he does. The problem is, it's often absent the facts.
BERMAN: Yes. And again, this matters, because if Russia is planning to do it again, the fact that the president won't come to terms with what happened last time is still shocking and should be shocking.
On the treason issue, what's fascinating to me is the president seemed to mess up Sarah Sanders's talking points on treason, because Sarah came on this show and others and said that people had accused the president of treason and how wrong that was, talking about John Brennan and others here.
AVLON: Yes.
BERMAN: But the president -- I don't know whether he intentionally mixed it up or by accident -- is now saying that others were treasonous.
AVLON: Yes. This is the "I'm rubber, you're glue" impulse that the president often indulges in. But obviously here, the stakes are far higher.
And to your point about Russia's continued attempts to influence elections. You know, FBI Director Wray, the Department of Homeland Security has been very, very clear and consistent about the clear and present danger of this.
So when the president diminishes it, it's not about saving his own face. He's sending a message that we're not taking these threats seriously.
BERMAN: And if he's not going to believe Vladimir Putin, President Trump, I don't know who he's going to believe.
John Avlon, thanks very much. We'll see you in a second -- Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: Now to this. British Parliament remains deadlocked over Brexit, even after Prime Minister Theresa May offered to resign if her plan was pushed through.
CNN's Nic Robertson is live at 10 Downing Street in London with more. This continues to be a mess -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It does. And it sort of became even more of a mess yesterday. There were votes by the MPs on what were called indicative votes. Eight different possible scenarios of different Brexit openings to what the prime minister has put on the table.
And you know what? Every single one of them was voted down. To give some, perhaps, margin to believe that the Parliament can get behind a couple of ideas here.
But it's really what the prime minister has been saying all along, that this is -- the deal she has is a compromise deal. The real question right now, now she's offered her leadership. She's put that on the line, said, "I'm going to resign. Just get -- essentially, just get my deal through, and you can have another leader to do the next phase of the Brexit negotiations."
Remember, this is just the divorce part we're talking about. There's the future relationship. So she has said that.
But despite offering her resignation, despite getting these cloudy but alternate ideas put forward yesterday, she does not have the support of the party in Northern Ireland she needs to keep her majority and to win the vote here in Parliament in London. She doesn't have that. They've made that very clear.
And there are also hardliners in her party that still won't support her. So yes, right now, the coming days are very unclear -- John.
BERMAN: Very unclear is one way to put it. Chaos is another. Nic Robertson for us, outside 10 Downing Street. Thanks very much.
[06:10:04] New this morning, the attorney general in Illinois is now being urged to review the handling of the Jussie Smollett case. This after Chicago's top prosecutor defended her decision to drop all the charges against the actor, who was accused of staging an attack on himself.
Our Ryan Young is live in Chicago with still more twists in this case, Ryan.
RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely. I don't know if you're keeping score here, John, because every single day, it seems like, we get more information about this case.
And on top of that, people seem to be taking sides on this one. And for instance here yesterday, we sort of got some more information from the police department, kind of detailing how detectives have been going through this case line by line and how they were treating Jussie Smollett as a victim for most of it until they started getting the information from the Osundairo brothers.
But in what you talked about, in terms of that information that you now have, "The Sun Times" is reporting that the Illinois House GOP leaders asking the state A.G. to review this. And we'll put the statement up on the screen for you so you can see
it. It goes, "I have concerns about the integrity of this investigation and of the office. For someone to falsify a hate crime and to be 'let off the hook' is not only unfair but sets a dangerous precedent for high-profile cases."
And that's a letter from the House Republican leader, Jim Durkin, and we got that from "The Chicago Sun Times."
And you can see already how lawmakers are sort of trying to say they don't like what they saw in this case, and they believe that something went wrong here in the background.
But listen to the state attorney's office, defending the reason why they moved forward, not only with dropping this case, but why they believe they could have proved this in court.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIM FOXX, COOK COUNTY STATE ATTORNEY: The court has not found him guilty. Based on the facts and the evidence that was presented in the charging decision made by this office. This office believed that they could prove him guilty.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YOUNG: Now, John and Alisyn, as you can imagine the Smollett camp is not happy with all the blows they're taking from people who are in public officials. So they said Mr. Smollett, like every citizen, is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Mr. Smollett is entitled to the same constitutional protections as any citizen charged by the government.
So you can see how this is going right now. There's another court case this morning, Alisyn. So this is not over just yet.
CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. All right, Ryan, please come back to us when you have any new developments, which you will. Thank you very much.
Now to this. The FAA says it will change the way it oversees aviation safety after the deadly crashes of two Boeing passenger jets. And Boeing is now introducing a software update for its 737 Max fleet.
CNN's Jessica Schneider is live in Washington with the latest -- Jessica.
JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.
The FAA was under fire on Capitol Hill Wednesday. The acting agency head insisting that there will be a renewed focus on how to improve the whole oversight process.
But he also expressed confidence in the Boeing software system that, of course, has faced such tough scrutiny in the wake of those two deadly crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia within six months. Now, the acting FAA administrator defended Boeing's decision not to
amp up training for pilots when they rolled out the new 737 Max planes. And he also yesterday on Capitol Hill explained why the FAA waited so many days to ground those 737 Max jets right here in the U.S.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANIEL ELWELL, ACTING FAA ADMINISTRATOR: I can't speak to the reasoning that the other nations took. I know that, in communication with those countries they, in our request, what data might they have. They did not have any data for us. The United States and Canada were the first countries to ground the aircraft with data for cause and purpose.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: And there were also questions on Capitol Hill about the FAA's perceived cozy relationship with Boeing. In fact, the transportation secretary, Elaine Chao, she even said it was questionable why certain safety features in the cockpit were previously optional rather than required. We know that Boeing has changed that just a little bit.
And of course, Alisyn, the questions on Capitol Hill, they came at the same time that Boeing has unveiled an overhaul of its safety software. That was out in Seattle yesterday. So Boeing trying to put on the best front possible as they move forward here -- Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: Thank you very much for the update, Jessica.
Let's bring in Miles O'Brien. He's our CNN aviation analyst.
So Miles, the idea that these planes were in the air before pilots felt adequately trained on their new technology, whose fault is that?
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, you have to point the finger at the regulatory process here. The FAA, at its origin, was built to promote and regulate aviation. So there's a fundamental conflict there.
On top of that, there's kind of this cozy relationship. But on top of that, there's a lack of funding, which makes it very difficult for them to put boots on the ground in the factory floor, looking at the development of these airliners as they're built. They would rely on the manufacturers themselves to warrant and certify that they've done the right thing and sort of do their own regulation. So there's all kinds of conflicts of interest here.
CAMEROTA: That is just -- I mean, at its heart, it doesn't make sense, to rely on the manufacturer to do the oversight that you're supposed to be doing. So will these crashes change that process?
O'BRIEN: Well, it is a matter of money. It always is. Right? And the FAA is under-funded and, frankly, doesn't have the capability to be there and look at every process, every design decision along the way.
So until that changes, we're stuck with this system. The idea, of course, is that Boeing, it is in their interest to produce aircraft that are safe, but, you know, sometimes there are conflicts of pressure, competitive pressure and cost which can undermine safety.
CAMEROTA: And now we know about this. I mean, now this has been revealed in this horribly tragic way. Miles O'Brien, thank you very much for the expertise -- John.
O'BRIEN: You're welcome, Alisyn.
BERMAN: All right. Now back to the breaking lottery news. Someone won the Powerball jackpot. They bought the winning ticket in Wisconsin. The jackpot total prize was $768 million. If you take the one time pay out, that's $477 million.
Now, they have not officially announced who won, who bought this winning ticket in Wisconsin.
CAMEROTA: But you have an idea.
BERMAN: I think I know.
CAMEROTA: Who is it?
BERMAN: I think it's Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner.
CAMEROTA: Why do you think that?
BERMAN: It's a household name, Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner.
This is why I think you won, Congressman. Because he has won lotteries three times in his life. He won $250,000 with a lottery ticket in 1997; and he won 1,000 bucks twice, like 2006 and 2007. He is a lottery --
CAMEROTA: Winner.
BERMAN: -- winner. Jim Sensenbrenner wins the lottery, I think, based on my reporting, based on reading some articles -- yes, some Internet articles -- that he is the winner of this Powerball jackpot.
So Congressman Sensenbrenner, please call our show over the next three hours and tell us about your Powerball victory. And congratulations to you, Congressman Sensenbrenner.
CAMEROTA: Your logic sounds totally sound. I mean --
BERMAN: Totally.
CAMEROTA: -- who could quibble with that? He's won 1,000 bucks in the past.
BERMAN: Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
CAMEROTA: All right.
BERMAN: And he was rich already. I'm telling you. Hang out with Sensenbrenner. That guy's got luck.
All right. Surely, when the White House took court action to strike down all of Obamacare, it had a plan to replace it. Surely, they can tell us what that plan is. First of all --
CAMEROTA: Don't call me Shirley.
BERMAN: And second, no. The White House non-answer for millions of Americans whose health care could be on the line. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:21:14] CAMEROTA: The White House says millions of people who rely on Obamacare should not worry about losing coverage, even though the administration is supporting a move to invalidate the entire Affordable Care Act. Vice President Pence's chief of staff laid out the White House's plans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARC SHORT, CHIEF OF STAFF TO VICE PRESIDENT PENCE: The president will be putting forward plans this year that we hope to introduce into Congress, Wolf.
But the reality is that the court decision is likely not until the summer of 2020 by the time it would reach the Supreme Court. We don't know how they would rule. The president has said repeatedly he would not sign any law unless it protected pre-existing conditions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: All right. Let's talk about this.
John Avlon is back with us. Also joining us now is Anna Palmer, senior Washington correspondent for Politico; and Catherine Rampell, "Washington Post" opinion columnist. She is a CNN political commentator.
OK, guys. So it sounds like this is not a fully baked plan yet and that the president surprised people by saying that he was immediately pivoting to that. Who, Anna, is tasked now with coming up with the Republican plan?
ANNA PALMER, SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, POLITICO: I mean, clearly the White House is going to have their plan. This is not something that Senate Republicans or House Republicans want to talk about at all. If you look at what happened in the 2018 mid-term election, this was a losing issue for them.
If you look at their first attempt at health care in the Trump administration. It was a bad experience for everybody involved. They do not have a replacement plan. BERMAN: And the plan that many Republicans point to, Catherine, is
Graham-Cassidy, which is something that came up in the fall of 2017. It didn't have the votes to pass. And while it says in its language that it would protect the right for people to maintain their coverage with pre-existing conditions, there is not a guarantee that the rates wouldn't change. So people with pre-existing conditions under the plan that the president has supported in the past their rates could become prohibitively expensive.
CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Absolutely. I think this is the problem. And they have had almost a decade to come up with a plan. They have not yet come up with one. And I think fundamentally, the problem is, if you were to come up with a plan that adhered to Republican principles, it would look a lot like Obamacare.
Remember, seriously, Obamacare -- Obamacare is a market-based plan. It largely relies on existing private insurance. It is modeled after a plan that was implemented by a Republican governor who went on to become the 2012 Republican presidential nominee.
BERMAN: His name rhymes with?
RAMPELL: Omni. And -- and beyond that, it's also based on a proposal from the Heritage Foundation about the individual mandate. So it kind of resembles everything that Obama -- excuse me, that Republicans love except for the Obama part.
And, contrary to the characterization that this was some sort of socialist takeover of health care, you know, it's a largely market- based plan. But of course, they can't admit to that.
CAMEROTA: But of course, John, it is flawed; and people's premiums and rates and everything have gone up. So there is room for improvement. And it sounded like when President Trump -- I mean, to me, when President Trump came out with that this week, that he's trying to tick off yet another campaign promise that he made on the campaign trail, and he's trying to just do that; and somebody else, I guess, will deal with clean-up on aisle nine and figure out how to do it.
AVLON: Yes. Look, that's the president's primary motivation, right? Check off the campaign promise, appeal to the base. Obamacare, not popular with the Republican base, to say the least.
But broadly and increasingly popular with the American people. Catherine is right in terms of its Republican origins. It's one of the reasons the GOP's been tied up in knots. There's always room for improvement. Democrats acknowledge there's room for improvement and reform.
But the problem is almost a decade later, repeal and release has been a hollow promise, because with the exception of a couple of wonks working on this, and Graham-Cassidy, the president certainly, and other folks, haven't got a clear alternative.
That's their responsibility if they're going to step on their own story on the Mueller and reignite this debate; because the president has promised repeatedly, Republicans throughout 2018, the pre-existing conditions were going to be protected, and that is not the case on the route they're pursuing.
BERMAN: I don't know that he fully understands, by the way, that -- saying, "I'm going to, you know, protect people with pre-existing conditions, and I'm going to protect the rates they pay." I don't know that he understands there's a distinction there. Because, again, it becomes prohibitively expensive, it doesn't matter.
[06:25:17] RAMPELL: While the brand of Obamacare is unpopular with Americans, but especially with Republican voters, the actual components of the law are quite popular. People don't necessarily know what's in the law. So it's not only the pre-existing conditions protections, but it's also like allowing kids to stay on their parents' health insurance until age 26. The Medicaid expansion. All of that stuff would go away. And it's all quite popular on a bipartisan fashion.
BERMAN: Just one more thing, the actual premiums on -- for people on the exchange just went down. Actually, year to year, they went down. A drop of 1 percent. And that report came out just this week. It got all overshadowed by the fact that the president said he wanted to throw out all of Obamacare immediately.
CAMEROTA: Well the devil is in the details, Anna. And that's not necessarily where President Trump is at his strongest.
BERMAN: Boom, yes.
CAMEROTA: He was on "Hannity" last night. And he talked about how, I think, optimistic he is that they're going to come up with something. So listen to what the president said last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP (via phone): So many things that we're going to do incredible health care that the Democrats, frankly, wouldn't even know how to do. We're going to have great health care. The Republican Party will be the party of great health care. We're going to have pre-existing conditions, absolutely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PALMER: Listen, it's great to talk in platitudes, and I think this is something he has said several times for the last year, plus. And even when health care debate was going on, when it was failing, and Republicans couldn't figure out how to get it passed, there are no details here. And honestly, there is no appetite on Capitol Hill. This is not what they want to be talking about. Republicans do not believe this is a winning message going into 2020.
AVLON: And look, people's health care deserves more than air shaped (ph) words. This is serious stuff for an aging population. And the president has an obligation to not simply put out bunting but to put out a plan; put out a plan that actually does what you say it's going to do.
BERMAN: I've seen no proof that he -- he knows the words "pre- existing condition," but I have seen no proof that he understands what the issues are.
CAMEROTA: Well, he also said we have pre-existing conditions.
BERMAN: Exactly.
CAMEROTA: It does.
AVLON: He does. He does. Our pre-existing conditions in this entire debate.
BERMAN: He needs to prove to me that he understands, and I think to the American people that he understands what the issues are for people with preexisting conditions and the rates they pay.
Catherine Rampell, we do not want to let you go without getting your comment on the Twitter nomination, which we call what?
AVLON: Twomination.
BERMAN: The twomination of Stephen Moore, who has been a CNN political analyst before -- to the Fed board. Now the nomination hasn't been submitted officially yet, but lovers of NEW DAY will note that you and Stephen have sort of occasionally debated, is a nice way to put it.
CAMEROTA: Very spirited fashion.
RAMPELL: Very spirited, yes.
BERMAN: What do you make of the nomination or twomination of Stephen Moore?
RAMPELL: How much time do we have? So look, I think it's totally reasonable for -- Steve is a nice guy, amiable, whatever. I have no personal objections to him being, you know --
BERMAN: Alive.
RAMPELL: -- being alive. Whatever. Being on TV. Being a political pundit, being a spin master for President Trump, a surrogate for President Trump. He does not have the skills to be on the Fed.
This is, like, one of the most important economic position in the world, and he could wreak a lot of damage to the Fed, because he -- first of all, he doesn't understand whether prices are going up or down, which is sort of an important thing to know if, like, you're setting interest rates, and part of the Fed's mandate is stable prices. And he chronically fabricates stuff in our debates on TV and, I think, would politicalize the Fed.
CAMEROTA: So you will continue your reporting on all of this?
RAMPELL: Look, he's welcome to spar with me on TV again if he wants, but I don't think he should be setting interest rates.
CAMEROTA: All right. Catherine, Anna, John, great to see all of you.
OK. Up next, we have a brand-new 202020 poll. Who is on the rise? There's something about Harry, and he's here to break down the hot- off-the-press numbers.
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